Strange and Strong
by fowl68
Summary: A lot of people tell him he's lucky, when they see his names. He knows all of his soulmates, which is a rare thing in war. A lot of people are born with scarred names or wake up to the agony of soulmates dying before they ever meet. Mithos doesn't feel particularly lucky when his sister dies. Ensemble fic.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything!

**Author's Note:** So, I've been seeing these Soulmate!AUs going around. It's kind of fascinating to me, how many different ways people have written it and how it always manages to feel unique. So I figured, I'd give it a try.

The soulmate marks in this are the names of the person in either silver for platonic love or gold for romantic. Here goes nothing.

* * *

_Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences.  
-Emery Allen  
_

* * *

Lloyd is born with one name. It's on the inside of his left knee in elegant script that shines platonic silver. Zelos Wilder.

A few months after his first birthday, he gets another. Smack dab in the center of his right palm, in loopy letters, is Colette Brunel. It's a romantic, rosy gold. His third name is in silver too, just like Zelos Wilder. But this handwriting is short, with thick lines that spell out Genis Sage.

_(Kratos only ever saw the first two names—Lloyd was lost to him by the time Genis was born—but seeing the names of the two Chosens made Kratos anxious for his son's future)_

* * *

Colette is born not only with a Cruxis Crystal in her hand, but two names on her body.

Lloyd Aurion Irving is pale rose gold scribbled across her collarbone. Sometimes, it's hard to see against her skin, but it's comforting just to know it's there. Looking back, some days, she'll wonder if any of them had ever thought to ask Kratos for his last name near the beginning, if things would have changed. Because Aurion is a name she's never going to forget because she sees it every day in the mirror.

Zelos Wilder is on top of her left foot, spanning from one side to the other. His silver looks tarnished and worn.

_(When she met Zelos—properly, not right after the Tower when she was just an empty shell of an angel—she knew why his name looked like that. He was so tired of life that there wasn't much shine left to him at all. He started to shine back up again, after the journey, but it took a while)_

* * *

Genis is born with both of his names.

One is Lloyd's. Childish scribble in silver on the inside of his right elbow. The first time Lloyd sees his hand go up in class, he grins wide and says, "So _you're_ Genis!" And those are the first real words his soulmate really says to him.

The other is Mithos Yggdrasill. It's written in powerful, arching cursive on his left wrist, but Genis has never quite been able to tell if it's in gold or silver; it's always switching shades and, some days, it becomes so tarnished and dirty that it looks like a smudge of dirt.

_(Those were Mithos' worst days, days when he wasn't even near spitting distance of sanity. The day that Martel's soul successfully transferred to Colette, his wrist looked black. But right before he died, Genis saw his wrist. Gold. Bright gold, like sunlight on his wrist. After Mithos' death, all that's left of him was a scar, white and stark against his skin)_

* * *

Raine Sage has never been particularly concerned with her name. It's silver, written in strong, masculine handwriting along her right thumb. Regal Bryant.

Raine has never had a gold name; she's not bothered. She has a little brother to raise and look after; what time has she for love? But, a part of her reasons, she's a half-elf. Their lives are of unpredictable lengths. She can live for another several hundred years; her romantic soul mate, if she has one, can be born in that time.

_(Raine wondered if her research counted. She was in love with learning, with pushing the boundaries of knowledge. She didn't need a soulmate for that. And, if she did, she had Regal, who was more than willing to discuss opinions with her and debate theories over tea)_

* * *

Kratos Aurion lives for most of his life thinking that he will never have a gold name.

He is born with two silvers.

Yuan Ka-Fai, on his left bicep in childishly careful letters. The same arm that holds his shield because Yuan is always going to protect Kratos. It's instinct.

Martel Yggdrasill, on his left side, right on his ribs in her slanted script.

When he is about thirteen years old, the name Mithos Yggdrasill appears on his right side, a little lower, closer to his hip.

It takes four thousand odd years for him to wake up to the gold on his body. A name, hardly legible, written on his right ankle. Anna Irving.

_(The first time he met her, Anna stole a knife from his boot. His right boot. She caught sight of her name there and glared him down, saying that there's no _way_ her soulmate was him. So she double checked his name. And it's there, written behind her left ear. It became Kratos' favorite place to kiss. Well, one of them)_

* * *

Sheena Fujibayashi has no idea which names she's born with. She is found crying in Gaoracchia Forest, almost a full year old, by the man she will come to call Grandpa. The rest of the world—okay, some of the world—know him as Chief Igaguri, of Mizuho.

There is one name that she's had as long as she can remember. Zelos Wilder, written in common, right in between the valley of her breasts. It's in gold, pale and dim, like winter sunlight. He has tried to convince her that the only reason he peeked on her in the shower that one time was because he wanted to see his name, his mark. Sheena has called him on his lie. Multiple times.

There is another name, one that Sheena keeps carefully hidden. Not that it's hard, when it's written around the meat of her right thigh in silver. She calls him what everyone calls him—Orochi—even though she knows his true name, written as it is on her body. Only soulmates, the wife or husband, and the Chief know people's true names.

_(She couldn't remember if Kuchinawa's was on her, once upon a time. Or if she'd simply made that up and told herself that she'd lost track of the silver mark with all the new scars she had. Zelos' almost disappeared. More than once, towards the end of their journey. Her soul almost shattered when she saw him standing up there with Colette, and Pronyma behind him. Traitor. Her soulmate was a traitor)_

* * *

Presea's body is a conundrum. Her sister's name curls along her right knuckles as a scar hardly visible against her skin. It used to be silver, she thinks. She hopes.

Her body is at odds with itself and the gold name stretches and warps in ways names usually don't to accommodate. Regal's is on there, though Presea's memory tricks her. Sometimes it's silver, sometimes it's gold and she's never sure of which it is.

She doesn't really have any other names. Not yet. But she's twenty-eight—or twelve. Who knows?—and that's a long time to not have a gold. She's sure that the Research Academy would like to study her. After all, she might be the key to figuring out this soul mark thing, if it's physical or something else. But she'll be damned before she ever lets anyone else study her again.

_(She thought, some nights, that she didn't really need a gold mark. She had the group. Lloyd, Colette, Raine and the others. They were company enough)_

* * *

Zelos Wilder has three marks. He is born with only one of them.

The name is one that he can't even pronounce right until he meets her. Sheena Fujibayashi. He can say it right in his head, but his tongue can't wrap around that last name. She's orangey gold, like a sunset, at an awkward place, on his left hip, but closer to the small of his back than his stomach. It's a spot that her hand rests on very naturally, when they're standing together. The day they meet, in Meltokio, he wonders if Fate made a mistake. There's no way that _this _girl can be his soulmate; she's way too good for him. He never stops thinking that.

His second mark comes when he's almost three, according to Church records. Lloyd Aurion Irving, in silver, lengthwise along his left forearm. The kid has a big heart and is way too trusting. But it's a different kind of trusting; he makes Zelos want to be deserving of that kind of trust.

The third comes about a year after Lloyd's. It's written on the inside of his left arm, where they draw blood for tests at the Research Academy for his Cruxis Crystal. Colette Brunel. Her handwriting is loopy and girlish and very very bright, for silver. When he learns who she is, he laughs bitterly to himself. Of course he has the other Chosen on his skin. The Chosen he has to kill—or simply allow to die—in order to get his baby sister the life she deserves.

_(He would learn that Sheena wasn't too confident either. She got clumsy on solid ground—despite the fact that she was the most graceful acrobat in the air—and she got a little shy in front of new people. It was worse in Meltokio, where her Mizuhoan accent stood out with its rapid vowels and slurred R's. It was only after she left for Sylvarant that she found her confidence. Lloyd helped her, she said. Lloyd would help them both, even if Zelos was the only one who had his name on him)_

* * *

Regal had three names, once upon a time. He is born with all of them.

Raine Sage is a sharp-edged, thin, silver name right above his left knee.

The day he meets the woman—girl, really—who belongs to the soft-edged gold name of Alicia Combatir written on the subtle angle of his hip, he feels a bit conflicted. She's so young, so bright and so cheerful. And so brave, to have come all the way out to Altamira from Ozette by herself.

Presea's name is an odd one, written on the top of his right wrist where his manacles would soon be clamped over it. For decades, it is dark silver, like good iron. After Alicia's death—her _murder—_it changes in sheen to a brighter silver, sometimes shimmering gold. When they find out exactly what the experiments did to Presea, he realizes why her name isn't a steady color. _She_ isn't steady, not until she has time to figure out who she is.

_(When Alicia saw the name on his wrist, she'd laughed, a sweet sound. "That's my sister, Mr. Bryant!" She would call him that for a long time, usually just to tease him. "How lucky are you? You get the both of us!")_

* * *

There are an unusual amount of names on Yuan's body, which he supposes makes sense, given how long he's lived. He's born with two of them.

Kratos Aurion is one that he needs two mirrors to see. It's written right between his shoulder blades in his small handwriting. Over the years—centuries, millennia—it will fade or shine because there are days when Yuan has a problem even recognizing his best friend. But it's always there. Martel is the one who says that it's because Kratos is always going to have his back. He remembers laughing and gently teasing her for her girlish notion; she'd promptly stuck her tongue out at him, but it had only made him laugh harder. The older he gets, the more it seems that she was right.

The name of Martel Yggdrasill is brilliantly bright gold, written on the back of his left hand, along the line of his fourth finger where his wedding ring sits. It's that name that supports Mithos' theory that she's still alive. It doesn't become a scar until four thousand years later, when he hears her screams across the world as the Giant Tree dies. It's the same, he knows, for Kratos and Mithos.

When he's twelve or thirteen, Mithos Yggdrasill appears as a glittering silver line, right along his throat from ear to ear. That name comes and goes too, just like Kratos', but it also has days when it tarnishes dark and dirty, days when Mithos is so lost in the madness that he can't find his way out.

Somewhere on the tail end of those long four thousand years, another name appears, also in silver. It's on the inside of his upper arm, no last name. Botta. He meets him in Palmacosta one day, in the middle of a fierce hurricane. Botta offers him shelter and Yuan takes it because he's immortal, not invincible.

_(He couldn't have predicted how loyal Botta would be, how dedicated. When Lloyd delivered the news of his death, Yuan had already known. He'd felt the name burn from silver to scar tissue. Yuan had never lost a soul mate—not officially. Martel's name was still shining bright—and he was trying to figure out the hole left behind)_

* * *

Mithos Yggdrasill is born lucky, he's told. He is in contact with one of his soulmates the day that he is born. His sister Martel's name is written on a curve, from his ear to the base of his throat, in bright, moonlit silver. She is there the day he says his first word, the day he takes his first steps. She is there the day they are run out from their home, stones pelting them. She is there during the hell that is war, up to her elbows in blood and worse as she heals people. He is there, hugging her in that pretty white dress, telling her he's happy for her.

He's born with three names, actually. All in silver. The second one is Kratos Aurion, one that Martel has too. It's written on his right hand, his sword hand. Yuan's name is in silver too, on the meat of his left calf.

A lot of people tell him he's lucky, when they see his names. He knows all of his soulmates, which is a rare thing in war. A lot of people are born with scarred names or wake up to the agony of soulmates dying before they ever meet.

Mithos doesn't feel particularly lucky when his sister dies. She's gone to a place he doesn't know how to reach; none of them do. Her name isn't seared on; it still shines on their skin. It's that fact that has him trying to find a way to bring her back. She can't be dead because she's not a scar. He will rip the world apart because of that fact.

His final name comes four thousand years later. It's in gold, the shadow shimmery gold of old, illuminated texts. Genis Sage. The name is along the inside arch of his right foot. He has hope, for the first months after meeting him, that maybe he won't fight against him, that maybe he'll choose to join him because after all, as his soulmate, he understands, right?

_(The day that Genis Sage stood in front of a mirror spitting his fears at him and told Mithos no, that this was wrong, Mithos felt something shatter that wasn't the mirror. Genis' name would never have a chance to scar, but sometimes, that didn't have to happen to feel that the bond was gone) _

* * *

Martel Yggdrasill is born with one name.

It's written in silver, in the human language, right along the top of her right shoulder. Kratos Aurion. It is such a different name than she's used to; the elves don't have names like that. Their names flow and are longer, they sound softer. Kratos Aurion is a strong, sturdy name, like an anchor. The day she meets the man—boy?—to go with that name, she is surprised by how quiet he is, how gentle. The day she first sees him fight, she thinks that the name suits him because seeing Kratos Aurion fight is seeing a fierce whirlwind contained in a human body.

The second name comes when she is two years old. It shines in gold, brighter than the sun, directly over her heart. The name is Yuan Ka-Fai, also written in the human language. That confuses her because the name isn't a human one. When she meets him—well, him and Kratos—it makes perfect sense. Kratos had been the one to teach him how to read, how to write. They are soulmates too, which makes her grin because that works out pretty well, right?

Her final name comes the day her little brother is born. Mithos is silver, like moonlight, right on her stomach. Her name is on him too; she sees it. Their parents die soon after that and suddenly, all they have in the world is each other. Each other, and the names on their bodies. They're chased from Heimdall for their blood and Martel protects the little boy in her arms from the nightmares as she dreams of a safe place for them, a safe place for her and her brother.

_(Martel never lived to see any of her soulmates die. It was that fact that made her the saddest as she lay dying. That the three people she loved most in the world would have to go through that much pain, because of her. That she would never live to see a gold name appear on Mithos or Kratos' skin. Would never see her and Yuan's children. It was those facts that hurt most of all)_


End file.
